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Lord David BLENCATHRA (United Kingdom, ECPA)

Mandates

In the political groups

  • Member: European Conservatives, Patriots & Affiliates since 03/02/2025
  • Member: European Conservatives Group and Democratic Alliance from 05/10/2019 to 03/02/2025
  • Member: European Conservatives Group from 27/11/2015 to 04/10/2019

In the Assembly

  • since 27/11/2015 Substitute - United Kingdom

In the committee(s) and sub-committee(s)

  • Alternate ECPA: Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights (since 03/02/2025)
  • Member: Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee) (since 30/09/2024)
  • Alternate EC/DA: Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights (from 30/09/2024 to 03/02/2025)
  • Full Member EC/DA: Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights (from 29/04/2022 to 26/01/2023)
  • Alternate EC/DA: Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights (from 05/10/2019 to 29/04/2022)
  • Alternate EC: Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights (from 24/01/2019 to 04/10/2019)
  • Second Vice-Chairperson: Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy (from 21/01/2019 to 26/01/2020)
  • Alternate EC: Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights (from 23/01/2017 to 20/01/2019)
  • Full Member: Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy (since 27/11/2015)
  • Full Member: Sub-Committee on the Western Balkans (from 05/03/2024 to 28/01/2025)
  • Full Member: Sub-Committee on External Relations (since 23/01/2023)
  • Full Member: Sub-Committee on External Relations (from 27/01/2016 to 13/12/2017)
  • Alternate of Mr Stephen GETHINS (Full Member): Sub-Committee on the Western Balkans (since 28/01/2025)

Interventions

Last speeches

09/04/2025 | 17:13:50 Mister Vice-President, This has been a good debate and I am grateful that there is strong support for our resolution and our recommendations. I counted 17 speakers in support of our report and two against. Let me reassure all colleagues that it gives us no pleasure whatsoever to make these recommendations. Just 3 months after the 6 countries created the Council of Europe, Türkiye joined and has been an esteemed member since 1949, all of our 75 years of existence. Some supporters of the... 09/04/2025 | 16:03:57 Thank you, Mister President. First of all, my colleague and joint rapporteur Mr Stefan SCHENNACH sends his profuse apologies. He has been elected leader of his party group and has had to return to Austria to participate in a debate in Parliament. He is in complete agreement with this report. On Monday, the Assembly decided to hold an urgent debate on the detention of the mayor of Istanbul, Mr Ekrem İMAMOĞLU, and the state of democracy and human rights in Türkiye, and we are honoured to be... 28/01/2025 | 11:49:55 Thank you, Madam Chair. I congratulate the rapporteur on her valiant efforts here. But I regret that the rules-based international order she wishes for here no longer exists. First, there is no single international order. There are multiple international orders. The United Nations and the UN Charter provide a general foundation but there are a variety of multilateral but not global institutions that co-ordinate or regulate members' conduct, providing some limited rule-based order such as the... 27/01/2025 | 17:03:47 Thank you, Mister Chairman. Sorry about that; technology defeated me. I am speaking to you today as the Chair of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Network of Election Observers. Over the past year, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe carried out 10 pre-election and election observation missions in four member states: North Macedonia, Bulgaria, the Republic of Moldova, and Georgia, with 64 Assembly members from 28 countries taking part. Our longstanding... 03/10/2024 | 10:22:44 Mister MORRIS, I am delighted to see you in the chair for this important debate. This is an excellent report by Mr Knut ABRAHAM and very ably presented by my colleague Lord Richard KEEN. Of course, Vladimir PUTIN denies that the Holodomor ever happened. That's just another PUTIN lie, just as he says that Ukraine invaded Russia, not the other way around. As this excellent report makes clear, the Soviet Union always claimed that the famine was just an act of God affecting the whole of Russia...

Activities